Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin

Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin, 1955

Nikolai Bulganin ( Russian Николай Александрович Булганин ., Scientific transliteration Nikolai Bulganin Alexandrovič * May the thirtieth ^{. Jul} / 11. June  1895 ^greg. In Nizhny Novgorod ; † 24. February 1975 in Moscow ) was a Soviet politician. The Marshal of the Soviet Union was u. a. 1947–1949 and 1953–1955 Minister of Defense and from 1955 to 1958 as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Prime Minister of the USSR.

After he and Malenkov and Molotov tried to overthrow the party leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1957 , he was voted out of the Politburo (then presidium) of the CPSU , but remained Prime Minister for another year.

Life

Political rise

Nikolai Bulganin was the son of an official. He joined the Bolsheviks in 1917 and worked for the political police in the Cheka from 1918 to 1922 after the October Revolution . After the Russian Civil War he was a cadre in the electrical industry and from 1927 to 1931 director of the Moscow electricity supply.

From 1931 to 1940 he was mayor of Moscow.

In 1934 he became a loyal Stalinist candidate for the Central Committee . During the Great Terror from 1936 to 1938, it rose through Josef Stalin's support. In 1937 he became Prime Minister of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSFSR) . From 1938 he was a full member of the central committee of the party and became Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and at the same time until 1941 Chairman of the State Bank .

At the center of power

During the Second World War he was a senior political officer in the Red Army with the rank of colonel general . From November 22, 1944 to September 1945, he was a member of the State Defense Committee of the USSR , the supreme war cabinet of the USSR under Stalin's leadership. At the same time he became Deputy People's Commissar for Defense when Stalin was also in charge of this department. Under Josef Stalin he became Minister for the Armed Forces in 1947 and at the same time Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (Deputy Prime Minister).

In 1946 he became a candidate for the Politburo , the highest political body of the WKP (B) . In 1947 he was appointed Marshal of the Soviet Union and in 1948 a full member of the Politburo . In 1949 he had to hand over the position of Minister of Defense to Alexander Wassilewski .

After Stalin's death, from 1953 to 1955, he again took over the Defense Ministry, which was formed from the War and Navy Ministries, in Georgi Malenkov's cabinet , and after Beria's overthrow he was First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. In 1955 he replaced Malenkow as chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister). Georgi Zhukov succeeded him as Minister of Defense .

As head of government, Bulganin and Khrushchev pursued a political course of de-Stalinization and détente , especially with regard to the neutral states. He visited India , Yugoslavia and Great Britain , among others .

The fall

On June 18, 1957, a majority (seven to four) of the Politburo members including Malenkov , Molotov , Voroshilov , Kaganovich , Saburov , Pervukhin and Bulganin, tried to overthrow party leader Khrushchev. The attempt failed due to a majority decision of the hastily convened Central Committee of the CPSU. Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganowitsch and Saburov were immediately voted out of the Politburo. Bulganin remained Prime Minister until Khrushchev took over this post on March 27, 1958. Bulganin was therefore expelled from the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1958.

In March 1958 he was deported to the post of President of the State Bank. He had held this as early as 1938. In this position he remained in Khrushchev's cabinet until August. He also lost his title as Marshal of the Soviet Union and was demoted to Colonel General.

Soon after, he was appointed head of the Stavropol Economic Council. In 1960 - at the age of 65 - he retired.

Awards (selection)

Bulganin was awarded the Order of Heroes of Socialist Labor , the Order of Lenin (2 ×), the Order of the Red Banner (2 ×), the Order of Suvorov and the Order of Kutuzov , among others .

See also

• Council of Ministers of the USSR
• List of Marshals of the Soviet Union

Web links

Commons : Nikolai Alexandrowitsch Bulganin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Nikolai Alexandrowitsch Bulganin in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Nikolai Alexandrowitsch Bulganin in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ see also en: Anti-Party Group

predecessor	Office	successor
Georgi Maximilianowitsch Malenkow	Prime Minister of the Soviet Union 1955–1958	Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev